The Three Theban Plays: 'Antigone', 'Oedipus the King', 'Oedipus at Colonus' (Penguin Classics)

click here for more details, find new or used items	Sophocles Our price £6.99 (£8.99) New from £2.69 Used from £1.34 Pages: 430 (Paperback) ISBN: 0140444254 Pub: Penguin Pub date: 1984-04-26 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 676

Reader Reviews:

Shocking, gripping . . . (3/3 people found this helpful)

I had read - and dismissed - Antigone in high school. Like many of the books I dismissed in my adolescence, it's actually heartbreakingly brilliant. Fagles' translation is beautiful and moving, contemporizing the language without destroying meaning or stretching plausibility to cater for short-attention spans. I found myself circling passages and it's not even part of my University reading list this semester. Reading something like these plays really reminds you how absolutely desolate Hollywood and Theatreland have become these days - almost nothing compares with Sophocles, and even the best of modern literature owes so much to the ancient masters that reading them inevitably changes the way you read everything else. Who can blame Freud for feeling so inspired?
As for Bernard Knox's introductions, I found they ellucidated the subtle nuances of the plays and enriched my reading experience, all while being riveting reads on their own. Perhaps even worth the price of the book alone, particularly the one introducing Oedipus the King.

You must read Oedipus once in your life! (6/6 people found this helpful)

A seminal work of both literature and theatre, Oedipus still haunts us. Academics argue still over the 'meaning' of Oedipus: is he guilty? is he simply blind? what's the truth of the relationship between him and his mother Jocasta? If we could ever answer all these questions the play would lose its power and drop out of the canon. Read it in this excellent translation and make up your own mind.

Antigone has been reinterpreted repeatedly: as a feminist play, as a play about political oppression, as a play about a dysfunctional family. Antigone may be a difficult character to sympathise with or understand, but the poetry of the drama excels even that of Oedipus (especially the eerie, haunting 'hymn to Dionysus').

More human than Aeschylus, more stately than Euripides, the greatest tragedy is that only seven of Sophocles plays have come donw to us, and these 2 are the best.

Poetic and harrowing (6/6 people found this helpful)

Many readers would dismiss classical literature as staid and impenetrable. They couldn't be more wrong and this translation of the Theban Plays proves it. The powerful story of the destruction of a family is told with incredible pace and verve: Oedipus lacks awareness but longs for it and faces the blistering consequences of his straight questions; he and his daughter Antigone are reduced to homelessness and poverty; Antigone, alone eventually, is criminalized for her refusal to compromise to state law. These dramas of individuals facing the often irreversible consequences of their uncompromising actions will always be relevant. This touching, powerful translation in contemporary English is the most accessible to new readers.

Not nice reading, but worth it! (2/10 people found this helpful)

Like one of the other reviewers of this book, I only read it because I was studying it at school. However, like them, I came to appreciate the book on its own merits. The suspense in Oedipus Rex is almost unbearable, and it stands out as one of the best plays of all time in my view. The play has a ending to compare with some of the goriest tv murders, as well as having a rather distasteful theme of unwitting incest.

Unfortuantely, the downside to this book is that it contains "Antigone" and "Oedipus at Colonus". While "...Colonus" is moderately entertaining, Antigone is an annoying character due to her extreme stubborness. However, this is saved by the sheer quality of Sophocles' writing. This translation also has notes at the end, to help new readers to undrstand some of the more obscure references.

The greatest plays by any ancient author (1/2 people found this helpful)

These three plays are the best you'll come across. The finest tragedies ever written.They are also quite controversial for todays standards with some complex inbreeding.A must for anyone of any age. If you know nothing about the Ancient world you'll see it for the controversy, and if you know all about the ancient world you'll know that it surpasses any other work by any other author

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